After the supremely disappointing misfire that was The Ladykillers, Joel and Ethan Coen are back with a vengeance. NCFOM is a taut, economical thriller, based on a Cormac McCarthy novel and hotly tipped to walk away with Oscar gold, this very evening.
NCFOM echoes the Coens’ assured debut, Blood Simple (and in its chief villain, the vengeful demonic biker of Raising Arizona) yet manages to feel fresh enough to put the Coens right back at the top of their game.
Vietnam veteran Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) chances upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad and, after sifting through a succession of corpses, winds up in possession of a briefcase containing two million dollars of hot money. He decides to keep it to himself, but of course, out there somewhere are ruthless people who want that money back and, with this in mind, they hire psychopathic enforcer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) to find it and bring it back to them.
Chigurh, however, has his own agenda and is soon keen to find the money for himself. Fond of using a compressed air gadget generally used in the slaughtering of cattle, and obsessed with tossing coins to decide whether people should live or die, Chigurh cuts a bloody swathe across the country as he homes in one his target and Bardem’s mesmerising performance is one of the most terrifying displays of near-supernatural evil in recent memory.
Tommy Lee Jones plays laconic lawman Ed Tom Bell, charged with the thankless task of making sense of the whole thing. Though Jones could probably do a role like this in his sleep, he offers a portrayal that is up there with his best and brings a much-needed note of humanity to the proceedings.
For the America portrayed here is a hard, unforgiving world where sickening violence seems no more than an everyday occurrence; and the film’s matter-of-fact quality offers no apologies for its own excesses. The Coens’ trademark humour is still here, but it is the darkest shade of black and as comforting as a pair of grit-lined underpants.
Of course, few films are perfect and in the last twenty minutes or so, NCFOM seems to become somewhat less sure-footed, offering a conclusion that is so negative it’s hard for the viewer to feel satisfied. Surely a little shot of redemption in the final reel wouldn’t have hurt? And a slightly odd note is the casting of Scottish actress Kelly McDonald as Moss’s trailer-trash wife, Carla Jean. Though the accent she offers is near faultless, she doesn’t have an awful lot to do but stand there looking perplexed.
Quibbles aside, this is a resounding return to form for everyone’s favourite film-making brothers and if it does lift the Oscar for best film, it won’t be much of a surprise but a well-deserved reward for one of the most original teams in contemporary American cinema.
